The Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics is 100 years old!

In April 1921, the Department and Clinic of Orthopedic Surgery was established. The first leader was Mykola Ivanovych Kefer, who did much for the organization and development of a new specialty not only in Odessa but throughout the USSR.

In 1930, the clinical base of the Medical Institute became the 2nd city hospital in Slobidka (today CCH № 11). The department occupied the two-storey second building of the hospital. An operating room, an X-ray room, dressings, plaster rooms, a physiotherapy room, a mechanotherapy room, a museum, and an auditorium were organized. Later, the clinic opened an outpatient clinic and orthopedic workshop. The department became a training base for two Odessa institutes: the medical one and the one for advanced training of doctors. In addition to pedagogical work, the department provided extensive advisory and medical assistance to the population not only of Odessa, but also of Kherson, Mykolaiv and Kirovohrad regions. In 1960, the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics was restored on the basis of the orthopedic and phthisio-orthopedic departments of the regional clinical hospital. Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor I.G. Herzen was elected the head. And from 1966 to 1983 the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics was based in CCH №3.

In 1983, the Regional Clinical Hospital with an orthopedic department was moved to a new building, and a multidisciplinary city clinical hospital № 11 was established in the vacated premises. Professor I.G. Herzen, Doctor of Medical Sciences, headed the department, widely known throughout the Southern region of Ukraine. In 1988 one of his students, Professor Wenger V.F., headed the department and since 2006 the department has been headed by Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Yu. V. Sukhin, who continued the traditions of his predecessors and sees quality care only in the symbiosis of science and practice!

The main direction of the department is to improve methods of treatment of injuries and diseases of large joints.

The method of endoprosthesis of the proximal humerus, hip and knee joints, spine surgery is widely used.

Thanks to the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics of ONMedU, Odessa School of Traumatology is among the best in Ukraine and every year expands the areas of its work, introducing its own developments and methods.

The department has developed a method of stable osteosynthesis of heel bone fractures by external fixation devices, introduced into practice a fixator for the treatment of multifragmentary fractures of the proximal humerus, and so on. The staff of the department is in constant scientific search for more effective and high-quality solutions for traumatic and orthopedic diseases.

Today, the Department of Traumatology and Orthopedics has three medical bases – in the University Clinic, CCH № 11 and in the Regional Clinical Hospital. Over the last year, equipment which has no analogues even in private clinics has appeared here, which allows to take care of trauma patients to a higher level. The department has 19 employees – 5 professors, 6 associate professors, 5 assistants and 3 laboratory assistants. Every year more than 200 foreign and more than 250 domestic students study at the department. The department conducts annual thematic improvement courses for more than 30 doctors.